1Kings
10:1 ¶ And when the queen of Sheba heard
of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, she came to prove him
with hard questions. 2 And she came to
Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that bare spices, and very much
gold, and precious stones: and when she was come to Solomon, she communed with
him of all that was in her heart. 3 And
Solomon told her all her questions: there was not any thing hid from the
king, which he told her not. 4 And when
the queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon’s wisdom, and the house that he had
built, 5 And the meat of his table, and
the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their
apparel, and his cupbearers, and his ascent by which he went up unto the house
of the LORD; there was no more spirit in her. 6
And she said to the king, It was a true report that I heard in mine own
land of thy acts and of thy wisdom. 7
Howbeit I believed not the words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it:
and, behold, the half was not told me: thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the
fame which I heard. 8 Happy are
thy men, happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before
thee, and that hear thy wisdom. 9
Blessed be the LORD thy God, which delighted in thee, to set thee on the
throne of Israel: because the LORD loved Israel for ever, therefore made he
thee king, to do judgment and justice. 10
And she gave the king an hundred and twenty talents of gold, and of
spices very great store, and precious stones: there came no more such abundance
of spices as these which the queen of Sheba gave to king Solomon. 11 And the navy also of Hiram, that brought gold
from Ophir, brought in from Ophir great plenty of almug trees, and precious
stones. 12 And the king made of the
almug trees pillars for the house of the LORD, and for the king’s house, harps
also and psalteries for singers: there came no such almug trees, nor were seen
unto this day. 13 And king Solomon gave
unto the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatsoever she asked, beside that
which Solomon gave her of his royal bounty. So she turned and went to her own
country, she and her servants.
Strong’s
and others have Sheba as a kingdom in Southern Arabia. Some say it lay in
modern day Yemen and a minority think it was in or near Ethiopia on the African
mainland but Southern Arabia sounds most likely.
Caravans
have been traversing the Arabian Peninsula of thousands of years facilitating
trade from Africa to Asia. These included, some sources say, the Incense Route
where the expensive items as mentioned here were traded. Yemen was known for
its gold trade in conjunction with the incense trade for thousands of years
with gold jewelry being notably prominent as a trading item, these sources
note.
It is
reported that Solomon has somewhat of a discussion of wisdom with this queen
who marveled at what God had revealed to Solomon. Here, she praises him for his
wealth, his power, and wisdom, two remarkable things that impressed her
immensely. God had truly blessed this Israelite king. Again I want to reiterate
that this was the Golden Age of Israel, not to be repeated again, perhaps,
until Christ’s millennial reign from Jerusalem in the future.
A talent
was a unit of weight, with some sources stating that a talent of gold could
have been 75lbs. and that in the time of Jesus’ walk on earth a talent could
represent 20 years of wages.
Almug trees, according to Strong’s, are
possibly Sandalwood trees. Algum in 2Chronicles is simply an alternate
spelling for an English transliteration of two slightly different Hebrew words.
There is almug from al-moo-gheem and algum from al-goom-meem.
Most likely, they are the same tree with two Hebrew spellings and two English
spellings provided.
1Kings
10:14 ¶ Now the weight of gold that came
to Solomon in one year was six hundred threescore and six talents of gold,
15 Beside that he had of the
merchantmen, and of the traffick of the spice merchants, and of all the kings
of Arabia, and of the governors of the country. 16 And king Solomon made two hundred targets of
beaten gold: six hundred shekels of gold went to one target. 17 And he made three hundred shields of
beaten gold; three pound of gold went to one shield: and the king put them in
the house of the forest of Lebanon. 18
Moreover the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with the
best gold. 19 The throne had six steps,
and the top of the throne was round behind: and there were stays
on either side on the place of the seat, and two lions stood beside the stays.
20 And twelve lions stood there on the
one side and on the other upon the six steps: there was not the like made in
any kingdom. 21 And all king Solomon’s
drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the
forest of Lebanon were of pure gold; none were of silver: it was
nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon. 22
For the king had at sea a navy of Tharshish with the navy of Hiram: once
in three years came the navy of Tharshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory,
and apes, and peacocks. 23 So king
Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches and for wisdom. 24 And all the earth sought to Solomon, to hear
his wisdom, which God had put in his heart. 25
And they brought every man his present, vessels of silver, and vessels
of gold, and garments, and armour, and spices, horses, and mules, a rate year
by year. 26 And Solomon gathered
together chariots and horsemen: and he had a thousand and four hundred
chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen, whom he bestowed in the cities for
chariots, and with the king at Jerusalem. 27
And the king made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars
made he to be as the sycomore trees that are in the vale, for
abundance. 28 And Solomon had horses
brought out of Egypt, and linen yarn: the king’s merchants received the linen
yarn at a price. 29 And a chariot came
up and went out of Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and an horse
for an hundred and fifty: and so for all the kings of the Hittites, and for the
kings of Syria, did they bring them out by their means.
Now 666 is
an interesting number for this king and at least one commentator insisted that
Solomon was both a type of a returning Christ and a type of the Beast of
Revelation, the Antichrist. Solomon was a wealthy monarch in the countries of
the Ancient Near East. We should remember that when an ancient writer, including
a Biblical one or, say, a Roman one, referred to the world they were speaking
only of the world they knew, the geographical area in which they and their neighboring
countries lived. Was Solomon richer than Chinese kings? Perhaps. But keep in
mind the likely context of such a statement as So king Solomon exceeded all
the kings of the earth for riches.
Fourteen
hundred chariots and twelve thousand horsemen show us that, as I have said
before in my comments on chariot warfare, they used a string of horses to
replace dead horses for a chariot in battle as the horses that drew the chariot
were a likely target for infantry and archers to render the mobile fighting
platform immobile and helpless.
Chariots
will play a very important part in place in the Old Testament and be a source
of contention. One thing missing in scholarship and Bible exposition is the
common sense understanding of chariot warfare. A chariot was a mobile fighting
platform as well as a ceremonial vehicle whose weak link was also how it was
delivered to the forefront of the battle so quickly; its horses. Logic tells
us, logic and common sense, that the horses would be what the infantry would go
after first. Kill the horses and the chariot cannot move and respond to the
battle. So, with chariots there needed to be a string of horses and horsemen to
accompany them. Like the pit crew at a NASCAR event these teams needed to be
able to replace dead and injured horses or, in a fierce battle, the chariot
would have been rendered useless and even helpless quite quickly, as the driver
would not be able to remove to safety in the event of being overwhelmed with
dead horses.
1Kings 4:26 And Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve
thousand horsemen.
2Chronicles 9:25 And Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, and twelve thousand
horsemen; whom he bestowed in the chariot cities, and with the king at
Jerusalem.
So,
in these two verses which have been the source of much disagreement it is very
obvious to me that Solomon had 40,000 stalls for chariot horses and 4,000
stalls that were big enough for the chariot and the horse team that drew it.
This would be necessary for maintenance and preparation before training and
battle. This also implies a string of 10 horses per chariot as the primary team
and backup. These backup teams would have not only needed protection by cavalry
but perhaps were a capable fighting force all their own. There is no
contradiction, just common sense and reading comprehension needed here.
Solomon
had horses brought out of Egypt. Solomon’s story gives us clues as to the why
of the eventual downfall of Israel as he multiplies wives to himself of foreign
religions and goes back to Egypt for horses.
Deuteronomy
17:16 But he shall not multiply horses
to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should
multiply horses: forasmuch as the LORD hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth
return no more that way.
But
at this point King Solomon and his kingdom of Israel are on top of their world.
It does look promising, doesn’t it?
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